1 The article by Lia Mastropaolo: «Nuove patologie adolescenziali o nuove emergenze sociali? L’hikikomori è solo giapponese?» was published at Terapia Familiare n. 97, Nov. 2011
Summary
More and more frequently, over the last years of her clinical activity, the author has met young adults showing the same symptomatology, that is to say staying locked at home, in a room/den, spending all day surfing the net, creating a virtual alter ego and living parallel lives. The question is whether we are encountering new pathologies or symptomatologies. In order to give an answer to this question, the author discusses the necessary changes she made to her methods when treating pathologies, the way in which she has been “reading” the symptoms, using hypothesis, treating the engagement of the teenager, the young adult and his family, as well as the way in which she has been keeping the therapeutic relationship if compared with the past and the way in which she has been taking into account of the symptoms within the therapeutic path. The author compares the past researches conducted on adolescents with today researches, as well as the Japanese phenomenon known as Hikikomori with new evidences in Italian young people and, through three clinical cases, she shows the following new methods of approach: “floating therapies” and the work on self.
Key words : hikikomori, systemic therapies, "floating therapies", work on self, new pathologies, new symptomatologies, young adult, Mastropaolo.